Great series Dan, and I'm figuring this one was hard to write, but certainly useful for me in reading. I've recently decided to take a new CTO role and also left my last one last September and I totally get the "space then reflect" thing.
I learned from this article, but there is one place I'd seek to disagree - though it might be semantics.
For me, there are definitely faults and people definitely make them, myself definitely included! For me blame is not shame though. I find that if you say "it's all the systems fault" then you have no personal responsibility, and if a person is afraid of faults they try to cover them up, or seek face saving through uncovering people's faults.
"Perfect is the enemy of Good" is my motto and so I expect things to get better but not be perfect, in my own work and in others. This set of principles leads me to look for opportunities to find faults quickly and to expect them, roll with it, and make things better as a result - both for the output, but also for the people involved.
Does this resonate with you or have you had experiences that have had bad outcomes due to "faults" and "blame" becoming toxic?
My experience is that "It is your fault" makes people defensive straight away, and assigning blame is what triggers people to hide and cover up errors. I have seen more than once finger-pointing destroying the relationship between people and teams, killing any future collaboration.
I find "it is a system issue" a constructive way of people being more honest as they can safely say "I made a mistake", and then discuss how that mistake can be avoided in the future. Looking at the problem from a system's point of view, it means that a solution that blame the person like "I promise I will never do it again" or "I will remember harder next time" are of little value. You are encouraged to dig deeper on the underlying issue and find a way that not just the person that made the mistake, but also any future person, will naturally not make the same mistake. This means changing the system, not the person.
But part of the system is people, and people's behaviour is shaped by the system.
It is the manager's job to ensure that people have the competency and clarity to do their job. I like dev.to/danlebrero/book-notes-turn-... model. Obviously, some people will not have the capability or potential capability, so it is that person to be blame to get a job that they cannot do? I don't think so, but the consequence is obvious: increase competency or find another person.
But you are right, where does personal responsibility starts? I think this comes from clear expectations. What does the manager expect from a person, is that person aware, and those that person agrees on the expectations?
Complex subject!
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Great series Dan, and I'm figuring this one was hard to write, but certainly useful for me in reading. I've recently decided to take a new CTO role and also left my last one last September and I totally get the "space then reflect" thing.
I learned from this article, but there is one place I'd seek to disagree - though it might be semantics.
For me, there are definitely faults and people definitely make them, myself definitely included! For me blame is not shame though. I find that if you say "it's all the systems fault" then you have no personal responsibility, and if a person is afraid of faults they try to cover them up, or seek face saving through uncovering people's faults.
"Perfect is the enemy of Good" is my motto and so I expect things to get better but not be perfect, in my own work and in others. This set of principles leads me to look for opportunities to find faults quickly and to expect them, roll with it, and make things better as a result - both for the output, but also for the people involved.
Does this resonate with you or have you had experiences that have had bad outcomes due to "faults" and "blame" becoming toxic?
Thanks for the comment Mike.
My experience is that "It is your fault" makes people defensive straight away, and assigning blame is what triggers people to hide and cover up errors. I have seen more than once finger-pointing destroying the relationship between people and teams, killing any future collaboration.
I find "it is a system issue" a constructive way of people being more honest as they can safely say "I made a mistake", and then discuss how that mistake can be avoided in the future. Looking at the problem from a system's point of view, it means that a solution that blame the person like "I promise I will never do it again" or "I will remember harder next time" are of little value. You are encouraged to dig deeper on the underlying issue and find a way that not just the person that made the mistake, but also any future person, will naturally not make the same mistake. This means changing the system, not the person.
But part of the system is people, and people's behaviour is shaped by the system.
It is the manager's job to ensure that people have the competency and clarity to do their job. I like dev.to/danlebrero/book-notes-turn-... model. Obviously, some people will not have the capability or potential capability, so it is that person to be blame to get a job that they cannot do? I don't think so, but the consequence is obvious: increase competency or find another person.
But you are right, where does personal responsibility starts? I think this comes from clear expectations. What does the manager expect from a person, is that person aware, and those that person agrees on the expectations?
Complex subject!